Decoding the ancient Egyptians' stone sky map

Just over 2000 years ago, ancient Egyptians carved a map of the sky onto two enormous sandstone blocks and set them into the ceiling of a temple at Dendera, on the west bank of the Nile.

This "Zodiac of Dendera" was blasted from its surrounds by a French treasure hunter in 1821, and is now on display in the Louvre museum in Paris, France. The circular design contains many intricate hieroglyphs, as well as human and animal figures, including several that represent the signs of the zodiac. As Jed Buchwald and Diane Greco Josefowicz discuss in their book The Zodiac of Paris (which I have reviewed, here), it arrived in France to a stormy debate over its meaning and origins.

The book deals with a fascinating period in French history, but it left me wanting to know more about the Zodiac of Dendera itself. Why did the Egyptians create it, and what was it intended to represent?

I called the latest scholar to tackle these questions, Sylvie Cauville of the Centre for Computer-aided Egyptological Research at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. She told me that as well as star constellations, the Zodiac of Dendera shows the five planets known to the Egyptians. The configuration of planets depicted occurs only once every thousand years, so working with astrophysicist Eric Aubourg, she has been able to date the map to between 15 June and 15 August in the year 50 BC - just after the death of Cleopatra's father, Ptolemy Auletes, in 51 BC.

Two eclipses are shown too, which Aubourg has identified as the solar eclipse of 7 March 51 BC and a lunar eclipse that occurred on 25 September 52 BC.

Why did the Egyptians go to so much trouble to create this sky map? Cauville reckons the solar eclipse must have occurred in Alexandria at around the same time that Ptolemy Auletes died. So Cleopatra had the Zodiac created to "inscribe for eternity" the moment of his death, or to be more precise, her own rise to power.

"It's a shame that so many fanciful things have been written about the zodiac," she says. "The astronomical reality is so much more beautiful."

On the ceiling of Seti 1 is evidence that UFOs were visiting Egypt thousands of years ago. The Los Angeles Times broke the story that a long lost sacred pattern has been re-discovered in an accidental photo that captured ten UFOs. This Rosetta stone has also unraveled the crop circle and Nazca Line mysteries. Google my name or "Inaja UFO Photo.

I hope Chelsea cherishs her day for years to come. Who are we to questions how the Clintons spend their money. They have given so much in time and money to the U.S. and other countries - it''s not our position to question why. Enjoy your day, I know it will be beautiful.